United Methodist annual conferences often open with a hymn that asks whether the gathered have survived another year. Voices echo throughout auditoriums as clergy and laity affirm that the God who has called them in shared ministry has brought them together safely again. That hymn restates the words of Psalm 66: “Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of [God’s] praise be heard, who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.”

Those words, so appropriate for an annual conference gathering, also state our reality as God’s people when we gather for weekly worship. Someone, no doubt, has received an unwelcome medical diagnosis. A woman has been trying for months without success to find a job. A teenager has been arrested, and he fears how it will impact his future. A couple, realizing that they can no longer live independently, are grieving as they consider where they should go. Even if these times of exile are not named during the service or around the coffee urn, almost everyone in the congregation bears some burden into the door of the church and carries it out again after the benediction.

Psalm 66 affirms, however, that God wills abundant life for God’s people. God is moving in the world bringing love and justice, particularly to those who are on the margins of life. We are called into partnership with God as bearers of love. As much as we want to relieve the burdens of our neighbors, sometimes our efforts simply cannot do so. Sometimes we can only offer a quiet presence and willingness to listen. At those times, perhaps it is enough to tell the stories of exile and restoration again, to remind each other that God sustains us through grace, and to give thanks.